The Graduate Group in Demography (GGD) is requesting a continuation of the NIA training grant in population and aging to the University of Pennsylvania. We propose three pre-doctoral positions, the same number awarded in the last competing renewal. Penn is providing unusually broad and rich training at the pre-doctoral level, has been successful with the pre-doctoral program in aging, and is attracting a number of strong applicants and matriculants. The pre-doctoral training program will remain in the Population Studies Center (PSC) where it enjoys strong support from the Graduate Groups in Demography, Sociology, and Economics. It is anticipated that, as in the past, a majority of students in the program will matriculate in the GGD, a unit of faculty members within the PSC with backgrounds in Sociology, Economics, and Demography and expertise in various aspects of aging. The principal aim of the population and aging pre- doctoral program is to train independent researchers who are prepared to play leading roles in social and formal demography, and, increasingly in biodemography as these approached relate to aging. This goal is achieved through 1) intensive instruction in the methods, theoretical approaches, and empirical substance of demography and allied disciplines; and 2) progressively incorporating students into faculty research activities that eventually branch into independent research. The GGD, with support from the NIA, has demonstrated that it can recruit talented, promising students and prepare them for productive careers. Over the past 15 years, the GGD has placed 23 Ph.D.s in academic positions. Over the same time, 15 pre-doctoral students have been NIA trainees. Despite the fixed number of NIA trainees, increasing numbers of recent and current pre-doctoral students have been exposed to important topics in the demography of aging and have written at least one paper on the demography of aging. Not only has the number of aging courses increased, but the scope of the demography of aging provides opportunities for including varying topics in nearly all of the other required courses. This past academic year, nearly one half of the weekly PSC colloquia have been on topics of direct interest to the demography of aging. All of our recent or current NIA trainees have or are on their way to having strong careers in population health and aging. The recruitment and training of members of underrepresented minorities-African Americans in particular-has been a point of emphasis for the PSC. We document a system of recruitment initiated prior to college graduation that has been in place for 11 years and that augurs well for the steady production of Ph.D.s from under-represented minorities in the years ahead. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]